Petticoats are underskirts designed to give fullness and body to upper layers of clothing and to create the illusion of a slender waist. Now worn as underwear, in the seventeenth century they were designed to appear through open-fronted gowns and overskirts and were often elaborately decorated. Farthingales, meanwhile, are padded hoops that were used to give a bell-shaped appearance to skirts, helping to create the voluminous silhouette that was fashionable at the time.